Lawmakers, agency officials and residents pressed for faster action and clearer public communication after the banned pesticide dieldrin was detected in Guam water wells during a joint oversight hearing of the Legislature’s General Government Operations and Appropriations committee.

The hearing’s witnesses — including the mayor of an affected village and multiple residents — said interim treatment and point-of-entry systems are being pursued but that agency notifications, procurement timelines and on-the-ground assessments remain unclear. The committee recessed the hearing and scheduled a follow-up for Dec. 2, 2025, at 2 p.m.

The mayor, Frances Wizama, told the committee that the Guam Waterworks Authority (GWA) has “progressed in mitigating this situation” and that agencies are working to bring interim treatment online pending any Environmental Protection Agency action. A long-time Jigo resident, Conchita Titano, told senators the initial public meeting there had “nothing, not even a plan,” and pressed for immediate, accessible notifications for affected residents.

Residents described personal and household impacts. Titano said three of her family’s homes are within the impacted area and raised concerns about the clarity and readability of materials distributed at the first community meeting. She said some families have paid out of pocket for filtration systems, describing one instance of about $3,100–$3,200 spent to obtain a device before agency guidance on acceptable filter types was issued.

John Martinez, who identified himself as the director of the Guam Economic Development Authority in normal practice, urged cooperation with regional experience, noting media and government reports from Okinawa about persistent contamination near returned U.S. base lands. Martinez described the chemical as “a poison” and encouraged joint investigations and shared lessons but did not identify any formal Okinawa-to-Guam inquiries that agencies have undertaken.

Committee members and speakers pressed agencies on several implementation points: whether point-of-entry systems can be assessed and staged before procurement is complete; what interim treatments are already online; and which wells have been shut down. Witnesses said some interim work is underway but that procurement, coordination with Department of Administration processes and technical assessments are slowing deployment to households that reported sensitivity to chemicals.

Senate committee leaders emphasized the need for timely, transparent data. The committee chair said the presence of a banned pesticide in island waters “is not merely a technical concern, it’s a community concern,” and urged GWA, the Guam EPA, the Department of Public Health and Social Services, the Department of Agriculture and other agencies to share follow-up testing, timelines and remediation plans promptly.

The hearing record shows community requests for additional village-level public meetings to reach more residents, requests for clearer multilingual materials and repeated calls for immediate notification protocols so households know when to stop using tap water for drinking or cooking. The committee scheduled the next oversight session for Dec. 2, 2025, to allow agencies and federal partners additional time to develop information and corrective measures.

The hearing did not produce formal regulatory rulings at this meeting; rather, it resulted in continued oversight and requests for agency follow-up and public outreach.